words and photo booth moments

but life flashes as the perfect picture never develops - this is - sitting in hours- it - never ready- truth flashes in between composure - focus- some smiles are captured - and those moments in between - words [wpm]

01 April 2011

how can the day go when you sat and watched it and did you do so much yet does it and do you have to show and will you look around now or back and stand up it's eight again how can the day go when you with you without you how can the day go when you sat and watched it and did you do so much yet does it and do you have to show and will you look around now

•••now ...about last post :{ just a mix of migraine brain and a clueless ipod touch user trying to write a blog post from bed using some shaky fingers that were beyond frustrated with auto-correct. oh and i couldn't look at the bright screen so my eyes were practically closed most of the time, ha, other than that it was posting as usual. well, not 'usual' per-se, since, i don't ever seem to post anymore... but that's neither here nor there... just consider it an early april fools post from silly me, that way i don't have to be funny today, fewf, what a relief. •••[fool•ish•ness] ie somethin's fishy....

too bad you can't get a copy of the april fools newspaper that the kids and i have coming out.... now that's some classic comedic journalism, complete with upside down swimming fish tales and catch phrases

(like this one that has become a favorite):

"when life gives you lemons make lemonade....

but unless life also gives you sugar and water,

your lemonade is really going to suck."

and another....

"i have connections with energy...

he's on my speed dial."

ahhh, i love these kids. they're funnier than any post auto correct could write for me.

15 March 2011

after all this time.... in th midst of a really painful migraine where I'm typing most of this with my eyes closed (haha I mean seriously I should leave it for you as only auto correct intended that would be awesome) anyway where was I oh yes.. only at this incomvoeniwnrnv hHaha ok I left that one for ya, only at this inconvenient mime... Iran ugh i mean time seruov seriously mauby I cannot post on a IPod with aigraobe.* shhh shah IpeAn I mean ahhhhhjhh not duh

*iPod with a migraine
**to be clear, the migraine doesn't have a mountains MIGRAINE -- I do
***lol like that cleared things up!! ha I intended on writing that it's not my iPod who has the migraine, it's me. but I believe sfter all of this nonsense that's become screamingly cleat CLEAR. please font DON'T scream.

oh how this had
has become this is reductions reduce rediculus I just wanted to post some haiku thata I just wrogtw wrote about japan because jahoa -- how appropriate of course bit I scribbled them on post it notes and forget this technology inhibit wow I can't even type u fi
followed by hugging hah ah lala I was trying to put a lot of h's like in ahhhh but with more and I either get inhibit or hugging and now this simple post of two haiku for japan hasbecome a parhetic n obvious display of both my inability to type on th iPod tharen
the Algeria n so kindly gave to me saxonrj six months ago but i still cant do it and also tellse me that Persians during my migraine days I should stick to wroth writing on poster
postits with pencil. oh haha and by persians -imeanto write perhaps ....:for goodness saké [oh ya but that lady lazy LAST one there, my friends, that was alll mine, no credit to autocorrect on that one for goodness---]

ok I mist UST UH MUST dash --

die DUE to technical difficulties..mograkinograine ie. migraine had has seen significant increase.

02 November 2010

at the newspaper meeting last friday (before halloween), dressed in costumes, i had the kids use their stormy creativity on the old"it was a dark and stormy night..."line, taking it places it had never been...

DO something with it, i told them, like, something, different, from a noise scratching at the window etc... i knew they were capable (and frankly, they knew it too.)

the next hour and a half that followed was full of poems, dark 'n stormy stories, haiku, photo shoots, and an abundance of pleading moments: can i pleeeeaaaase read you what i just wrote??can i read this out loud?can i share just one more?!!!

... somehow, a few quiet gems were left unseen, tucked in the stack of pages to photocopy.it wasn't until later when i was making copies thati found this one amongst the others in the stack,written by my dearest abby.and standing there in the bright and empty copy room...i read abby's dark 'n stormyadaptation.

all alone with a huge grin, i shook my head at the page saying, ABBY! abby abby abby you got it-- this is-- that's it abby, i knew, you knew... exactly. abby!! this is why, this is exactly, kind of-- the thing i'd--

28 September 2010

--to wait and yet hold every whisper when darkness falls leaves warm to cool fall short shortness of breath to breathe too hot to think of it all now in the midst first last in medias res touch of indian summer enduresas darkness comes to air too warm to notice notice notice holds us here and will endurewhisper every hold yet and wait to--

15 September 2010

my students are starting their own blogs!!!! i'm not only excited but laughing and smiling out loud as i read them. here i introduce you to the many instructions on how to be josie by one of my 11 year old students who has more projects going on at once than i do! and this is one of them. an in-depth character study, josie leos, is she real or fictional? or both? or does it matter... with almost daily updates (whenever the computer is working..) posts on what it's like to be the new girl at a charter school, and josie's unique view of the world. complete with a daily haiku update, funny real-life quotes captured along the way, and beautiful poetry and short stories that this young but extremely wise wordsmith produces with ease and grace. check it out once in a while now that it's up and running, sure wish i'd done something like this when i was 11. josie could give us all some instructions....

HERE'S A PREVIEW:

ABOUT ME.

I am josie and if you already have not noticed my favorite color is orange. i am eleven and i go to my famous middle school that i am and will write about. this blog was started because of my splendid, stupendous, remarkeble, dazzling,and wonderes writing teacher LARISSA TALE who says that i need to tell someone besides her about EVRYTHING so read my blog you must read my blog(transiylvanian accent)

THIS GIRL KNOWS HOW TO TITLE HER STORIES!!

with post titles like:

ballet, beatrix potter, and bad squash

and:

BALLET (again), BOARDS YOU JUMP OFF, BEING PRINCESS PEACH, (plus writing a speech but that does not start with B)

28 July 2010

used to be the roller coaster now we simply coast, coasters holding tight letting go hands up it's not in them anyway never was after all down hill up hill screaming round holding breath side-to-side, only 'bout a minute and a half can feel like years can feel like it was meant to be, then walk away... side-by-side

and the noise and quiet lights still shine on waves that crash in the ocean under the boardwalk rides on rough tides on silent shores and sure unsure and still always return and crash sinking feeling of certainty inexplicable depth perpetual rhythms after a while you don't hear them anymore even in the shell you held with faith or didn't, they simply become you, become a part of you and your footsteps and any given day and rock you to the core, ya they do that too--

and rhythms strong and gentle hold on tight in any event that comes with the next crashing wave that pulls away and coasts this minute and a half, on the coast

26 July 2010

"the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop"
jack kerouac

22 July 2010

from behind big sunglasses no reflection glitter on bright screens starred envisioned watching the time forgot to look

and to think--

but what's the purpose-- question-- so on and on... so and so and

speaking, flashing, posing, speakinglines when prompted and on

and on and -- line --

and on and on

and off consumed

oft it is...

he was right

ps....

yes that's right i just remembered... i have a blog!!! ha! wow, funny how that slipped my mind. in fact, i have two blogs, well, more than two.. i better catch up.

'all the world's a stage' is the theme of the summer writing workshops that i'm doing with the kids, but it has also been the way the world has been playing before me in recent months, the way in which things have appeared to me... from behind my sunglasses (and i do believe i'm borrowing the phrase 'from behind my sunglasses' from one of my student writers! isn't that an awesome sentence?!!) authenticity is nearly impossible to grasp-- there's so very little of it... at best i put on my sunglasses and search for what little of it remains within myself... and on and on-- through-- beyond-- and behind-- all the staged and the stages...

.

i write

chantal [2 syll. shɑn•tɑhl shawn-TAL (French)]

making something of nothing— scribbling words spilling coffee cleaning up my messes scribbling coffee spilling poetry on napkins—
from behind big dark sunglasses and chronic migraines, good coffee gone cold and the hours, the hours where do they— i write. leaving traces of haiku on scraps of paper everywhere i go and working with promising writers— captivating them with their own words.
i read read read (despite the fact i'm a slow reader) and i'd say a good 75% of those books are picture books (ya, kids' books, whatever) and if i catch you standing there i'll start reading one to you, i believe every adult needs a good dose of children's lit every day. a picture book can turn around your entire perspective, make you laugh, and the pictures are just too good!
...in fact, i dabbled in the trade myself way back when (a year or so after this photo of me was taken, i do believe).
and since my 1st grade debut stories ‘how to make a peanut butter and tuna fish sandwich’ and ‘i hate saturday morning cartoons’ i’ve had words at my fingertips and now, they're at yours—
c

writing from the rooftops blog

my yellow shoes

corners

in the words of my great aunt, years ago, wish i could still get a letter from her now...

“I want to thank you for the letters you’ve sent me, mail is very special cause the days are kind of slow. So I really appreciate that you take the time to write. But more important the letters themselves – they are delightful, you have a real talent for writing and I hope you will develop it. Obviously you enjoy it because it shows. To be able to express yourself is great – but to be able to do it creatively and entertainingly is very special...”